Monetization: When To Sign Up For Ads On YouTube

You’ve started making YouTube videos and people other than yourself have started watching them. So now you’re wondering, when should I consider monetization and put those ads on my videos that everyone else seems to have?

The History of YouTube Monetization

In the past, YouTube’s monetization “Partner” program was by invitation only. When your video reached a threshold of views, it would trigger the system to send you an invitation to have that video monetized. It was how YouTube attempted to recognize good quality content. After having enough monetized videos, you were invited to monetize your entire channel, which opened up monetization on all your videos with only a few hours or a day delay for the monetization request to be processed.

Monetization Is Now Open To Anyone

If your account is in good standing, meaning you haven’t received a bunch of strikes from YouTube and you didn’t previously violate any rules with Google AdSense, then you qualify to have your YouTube account monetized. That’s great news! Instead of waiting for YouTube to send you an invitation to start showing ads on your videos, you can start running them whenever you want.

Should You Wait For Monetization Until You Have More Content?

Why would you? Let me tell you my story. I started my YouTube channel back in 2010. This was in the era of YouTube invitations for monetization. I was merely uploading videos of my kids to share with family and friends for a year and was start to get connected in the YouTube community. I wasn’t generating many views back then until one day in October of 2011, we found ourselves with a viral video.

It was a video I had uploaded in April. A full six months after it was uploaded, suddenly the views shot up. I tell you this because I lost earning revenue on 300,000+ views because the video had not yet been invited to be part of the partnership program as it hadn’t previously reached the view threshold. It reached it when it had already gone viral and we got our email from YouTube in the middle of viral chaos. The video has now gone on to 3,000,000 views but 300,000 non-monetized views is still a missed opportunity. You are lucky to be starting out with YouTube now with it’s new approach to monetization. Your video can be monetized and ready for views.

Do It All At Once

Think about what a pain it would be if you don’t put ads on your videos right away and then decide to go back and do it later. Why not do it all at once when you upload? You’ve just edited this video so you can say with certainty if you own all the content (remember copyright rules). Monetization is done with just a few clicks and the ads are in place when it goes live (unless there is a delay in processing). It saves you a step.

Parting Words

When should you start putting ads on your video? Right away. You are a creator and since you are sharing your work with your audience, you’ve earned the opportunity to put ads on your videos. So do it. It’s money that is being offered to you. It takes a while to earn that first payment, so why not start today? There is no rule that you must have X number of subscribers or videos. You make videos. Period. Go monetize.

Cheryl lives in Alberta, Canada with her husband and six boys. She has been on YouTube since 2010 and is focused on highlighting the fun side of parenting. She is a soon to be published author and has a passion for helping others by sharing the tips and tricks she has learned along the way.

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About Cheryl

Cheryl lives in Alberta, Canada with her husband and six boys. She has been on YouTube since 2010 and is focused on highlighting the fun side of parenting. She is a soon to be published author and has a passion for helping others by sharing the tips and tricks she has learned along the way.